The BSS Journey
What does it really take to build a small business in the UK — from the ground up, with your own hands and heart? This is my story of turning a dream into a self storage business: the opportunities and challenges, the blessings and nightmares, the highs and lows, the joys and tears, the breakthroughs and breakdowns, the laughter and frustrations, … and everything in between.
The BSS Journey: my road to start a self storage business from scratch
-
Chapter 28. The Tapo Cameras
Choosing Tapo cameras was not a casual decision. Smart Cameras: Killing Two Birds with One Stone From the very beginning, I wanted our cameras to do two jobs: Traditional CCTV is very good at the first. You can watch live video, record it, and play it back later. But trying to use the camera as…
-
Chapter 27. The Local Ubuntu Server
When I graduated from university in 1996, I used to build my own PCs from components. Back then, the operating system usually came on a CD — later a DVD — which you could use to boot up a completely empty machine and install Windows. A few years later, after I started my own business…
-
Chapter 26. How We Solved the Time Delay of the Cloud System
In the last chapter, I mentioned a serious problem with the Tuya + AWS cloud control system: time delay. The smart cameras could detect movement.The smart switches could turn lights on.The cloud logic could connect them. But sometimes there was a delay. Sometimes 10 seconds.Sometimes 30 seconds.Occasionally even longer. At home, this was annoying. In…
-
Chapter 25. The Wicket Door with TTLock
A wicket door is a small pedestrian door built into a larger industrial door — usually a roller shutter or sectional overhead door. You see them quite often in commercial buildings. During working hours, the main roller shutter can be fully opened for deliveries. At other times, people can simply walk through the small wicket…
-
Chapter 24. Why I Picked TTLock for User Access Control
So I was half way into my BSS Journey, and got stuck between two almost-right solutions. One could open the door, but couldn’t manage users properly.The other could manage users, but couldn’t open the door I needed. It felt like buying a car where one model had an engine but no steering wheel, while the…
-
Chapter 23. The Broken Cloud Logic
Part 4. AWS — The IoT Commanding Centre AWS – Amazon Web Service can be confusing. Most people hear “web” and think of websites — the things we visit every day: BBC News, Amazon, YouTube, or a self storage booking page. Most people use the web every day without thinking about it. We open a…
-
How Retailers Can Use Self-Storage Units to Manage Stock Effectively?
With the rapid growth of small to mid-sized businesses comes a corresponding increase in inventory items like products, tools, packaging materials, and supplies that may soon overwhelm the workspace. Cluttered offices and stockrooms create low productivity levels, which can increase inefficiencies associated with daily operations. Self Storage for Retailers response to these issues, many businesses…
-
Why Businesses Prefer Container Storage for Inventory Management?
Inventory management plays a crucial role in any business. Whether you’re an ecommerce business, retail shop, construction firm, or wholesale business, proper product management is critical to running your daily operations. As business expands, however, it can be challenging to store products, packaging materials, tools and equipment. When space is limited, workplaces tend to be…
-
How Self Storage Can Help Small Businesses Manage Inventory Efficiently?
One of the major challenges of every small business is managing the inventory.As your business grows, products, packaging materials, tools, and supplies can quickly take over your workspace. Having a cluttered office or stock room not only looks untidy but can also slow down the operation and affect productivity. This is where self-storage becomes a…
Join 600+ subscribers
Follow my real-life journey — every success, every struggle, every lesson learned on the road to building Birmingham Self Storage.